Available — booking into Q4 2026 UK · Remote BST · GMT+1
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Alex Bennett / technical lead

About

One engineer.
A decade in.

I've spent a decade building content platforms — first at agencies in Leeds, then at the British Library, now at Strapi. The tools have changed; the work hasn't. It's still mostly about the conversations between engineers and editors that decide whether a system gets used or worked around.

~/feed.live
Recent activity
  • webbist-js/portfolio 01:01
    Declare BYPASS_TOKEN and public site vars on the turbo build task (strict env mode stripped them on Vercel)
    main
  • webbist-js/wedding 24d ago
    rsvp: bring deadline forward to 31 December 2026
    main
  • webbist-js/libraries.global 120d ago
    refactor(ui): eliminate LibrarySearchParams mapping shim in LibraryIndexGrid
    dev
Profile

I'm drawn to the unglamorous middle layer — where a team's architecture decisions quietly compound into either leverage or debt.

Started as a front end developer at Epiphany Search in Leeds in 2015, then moved through senior frontend roles into leading web development teams — first at 43 Clicks North, then at the British Library, where I covered the Head of Web Development role for a year and led the web team's interim response to the 2023 cyber attack. Joined Strapi as Implementation Manager in 2024.

I focus on enterprise rollouts — content modelling, frontend integration patterns, plugin architecture, and the dozen organisational decisions that decide whether a headless project ships or stalls.

Day job and independent work

I'm employed full-time as Implementation Manager at Strapi. Everything on this site is my own independent work: it is separate from that role and cleared with my employer, and the case studies and testimonials here are mine, not Strapi's.

Stack
Strapi 5Next.jsTypeScriptReactNode.jsPostgreSQLGraphQLtRPCVercelAWS
At a glance
based:
UK · Remote
tz:
BST · GMT+1
email:
info@alex-bennett.co.uk
availability:
booking into Q4 2026
Career timeline
  1. 2024→

    Implementation Manager

    @ Strapi

    Full-time, remote. Working inside enterprise Strapi implementations: discovery, content modelling, integrations and delivery support. Independent work on this site is separate from this role.

    Strapi 5
  2. 2023–24

    Head of Web Development

    @ The British Library

    A year covering the Head of Web Development role during the postholder's parental leave, on an indirect contract. Led the web development team's interim service response in the hours after the 2023 cyber attack, in collaboration with the Digital Engagement team.

    GOV.UK standardsWCAG
  3. 2020–23

    Head of Web Development

    @ 43 Clicks North

    Technical Lead from July 2020; Head of Web Development from January 2021.

  4. 2020

    Senior Frontend Developer

    @ Zeal Ltd

    GraphQL and Vue microservice work, March to June 2020.

    GraphQLVue
  5. 2015–20

    Senior Frontend Developer

    @ Epiphany Search

    Front End Developer from November 2015; Senior Frontend Developer from May 2019. Campaign assets, single-page apps and Umbraco sites.

    Umbraco

How I work

Principles I keep coming back to. They are not original — they're earned. Each one cost a project to learn.

The team owns it

If your engineers can't operate the platform without me by the end of the engagement, I haven't done my job. The leverage is in transferring competence, not gating it.

Boring infrastructure

I will reach for the proven tool over the interesting one almost every time. Strapi, Postgres, Vercel. The boring stack survives staff turnover; the clever one rarely does.

Editor-led modelling

Content models that don't match how editors actually work get worked around. I spend disproportionate time with editorial teams in week one.

Written, not whispered

Every architectural decision lives in a written ADR. Every meeting outcome lives in a doc. The best documentation is the kind that survives me leaving.

Books on the shelf

What I'd hand a new senior engineer or interim tech lead. None of these are about the tools — they're about the discipline.

  1. An Elegant Puzzle

    Will Larson

    The book I hand new tech leads. The chapter on org debt alone is worth the cover price.

  2. Designing Data-Intensive Applications

    Martin Kleppmann

    Still the best mental model for thinking about content systems at scale.

  3. The Manager's Path

    Camille Fournier

    Read this before you take the IM job, not after.

  4. A Philosophy of Software Design

    John Ousterhout

    The clearest articulation I've read of why deep modules and shallow interfaces matter.

Get in touch

Tell me what you're building.

Prefer email? I read it twice a day.

info@alex-bennett.co.uk

booking into Q4 2026